What is Linux and what is a Linux distribution? History of the creation of Linux Who is the creator of Linux.

The most popular operating system at the moment is Windows. This is due to both the successful start and the initial focus on working with inexperienced users. But almost everyone who has used this OS for several years has a question about what analogues can offer. One of these will be discussed in the article.

Linux: what is it and what does it consist of?

This is not an easy question. To fully familiarize yourself with the capabilities of this development, you need to read more than one book and spend a lot of time at the computer. The operating system itself is a set of programs that make it possible to interact with a computer and run other programs. At its core there are several important applications that can be divided into the following groups:

Allowing you to receive instructions from users and communicate with them.
Making it possible to read and write data to the hard disk, as well as play it back using a printer.
Allowing you to control memory usage and the launch of other programs.

The most important part of an operating system is the kernel (called Linux). What does such a device give you in practice? Currently popular temporary samples use various programs that were written for this project as another part of the operating system. By the way, the full name of this OS is GNU/Linux. Next you will find out why she has such a name.

Creation

GNU/Linux was modeled after the Unix OS. From the very beginning, this operating system was designed to be multi-user and multi-tasking. This alone is enough to make her stand out. But there are much more differences in it. The most important thing is that it is free (a significant part of the developments was created by volunteers for free) and the absence of an owner. The Free Software Foundation first started creating something like this in 1984. Then they developed a Unix-like operating system, which was called GNU. Many basic functions were created, with the help of which it was possible to solve a wide range of problems (if compared with what generally existed then). In addition to the fund, many working groups and individuals made their contribution, which in no way detracts from their work. But there are still some peculiarities. Thus, the foundation created most of the tools used, the philosophy and community of enthusiastic users and independent programmers. Thanks to their efforts, a well-functioning one appeared. But this is still the story of only the first part. The Linux OS kernel was created by a Finnish student in 1991 (the first stable version dates back to 1994). Then it was announced as a replacement for Minix. The creator has not retired since then and continues to lead a group of several hundred programmers who are improving the operating system.

What does the operating system provide to users?

Today there is greater freedom in choosing the necessary software. Thus, there are a dozen command line shells, as well as several graphical desktops. Moreover, this does not mean visual design, but a change in the functional part. Also, thanks to the adaptation of the operating system to run several programs, it is less susceptible to various failures and is better protected. Since its inception, Linux OS has been slowly but surely gaining its audience. So, most servers are already running on it. She is just beginning her journey in the corporate segment and at home. Each distribution differs in its functionality, appearance and size. So, there are options that provide the broadest opportunities. There are also those that can fit on a small flash drive or work on old computers. Also, immediately after, you are given the opportunity to quickly install software packages to work in certain areas (which is valuable if you are creating an “office” computer).

Terminal

This is an important part of working with the Linux operating system. What is a terminal? This is a powerful tool with enormous potential. With its help, you can make it easier, or even completely transfer all routine work to the machine. Using the terminal you can:

install and run programs;
configure the distribution or configuration files;
add new program repositories;
and many other things that this Linux review will tell you about.

Basic use of the terminal, as well as installation of programs

Launch it. To start the program, just enter its name. This way you can activate everything from simple timer programs to complex utilities. To do this, you do not need to enter the full path (which is a big difference from Windows). Let's take an example of launching the Firefox browser and immediately opening a website. The latter must be placed in the arguments. Their types depend on the programs that are called. So, the desired command will look like this: firefox “address of the site we want to go to.” Another important feature of the terminal is that there are a number of commands that are designed to work with it. That is, they do not have a graphical interface. Now it's time to talk about Of course, there are graphical applications that can help with this task. So, launch the terminal and enter the following: sudo apt-get install package_name. Not difficult, right? The word sudo is used here to obtain administrator rights to install the program. Using apt-get, the desired parameters for the application are read. And install directly installs the program. Moreover, the peculiarity is that you can work with several applications at the same time - for this you only need to separate them using a space.

You can easily guess the name and purpose of installation packages without using various tools. But if this is not possible, press Tab. When changing distributions, it is not necessary to do everything all over again - just export the names of the packages used to a text file in order to subsequently import its contents. This simple Linux instruction is necessary for initial work.

Working with files and directories

There is a nuance here that will help you quickly understand the features of the operating system. So, work always happens in the current directory. To do something in a different location, it must first be specified. There is such a command - nano. Used to open a text editor. If you enter nano “document name”, a file with the specified name will be created in the current directory. But what to do when it needs to be done in another folder? We write the command this way: nano /home/rabota/documents/”Document name”. If the specified directive does not contain a file with the required name and extension, a new one will be created and opened. What if you need to move from one folder to another? To do this, use the cd command. It can be specified by itself - with /, ~ or with a directive. The first three commands will move to the root directory. To display a list of files in the current directory, use ls. To create a new directory, use mkdir "Name or path". To delete files, use the rm command. After it, it is necessary to indicate the name of the document or the directive for its placement.

To copy files, you must use the command cf “Document name” - “Path”. Please note that it must be used in the directory where the transferred object is located. mv works in the same way, but it is already moving the file. So, it is necessary to indicate as follows: mv “Directory where the document is located” - “Path where the object is moved.” From the outside it may look a little difficult, but a little practice will convince you that it only seems so. Now you can basicly configure Linux to suit your needs.

Working with the system

Use Tab. This is an extremely useful key. So, it can help with autofill. This works for packages, files and folders. If there are several options, the system will offer to choose one of them. Also remember that taking care of Linux will be on your shoulders. Although you can use the provided assemblies if you don’t want to assemble your own brick by brick (although this is one of the features of the system). But just in case, know that this is a simple matter, and in most cases, carrying out this action will not be difficult. You can also use any of the graphical interfaces to work, which are freely available (although the easiest control method is the command line).

Linux installation

What should you do if you want to use this operating system? Then you need to know how to install and run Linux. Initially, choose the distribution that you will have. Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS and many others are popular. We draw your attention to the operating systems presented, although the final choice is yours. To do this, you will need to acquire an ISO image and burn it to disk. It is advisable to download the file from the official assembly website. Then you need to select the number of system bits. The 32 version has fewer compatibility issues and works better with drivers. But its 62 counterpart has better performance. True, they will also cause troubles that you will have to deal with. Before you begin, make sure you have a backup copy of all your important data. Don't think that the system can ruin anything for you. It’s just that in most cases, the users themselves, out of ignorance or in panic, delete important information. So, you have a disk with a system image. Before reinstalling, configure the basic I/O system to work with Now you can reboot.

We will use Ubuntu as an example. This is a popular operating system, and it is not difficult to find recommendations for working with it. So, the screen will initially load where you will need to select “Install Ubuntu”. Initially, you will need to select the Linux language. Determine your time zone. Then you configure the keyboard. In the next step, you will need to prepare the disk space. At this stage, the solution to this issue can be delegated to the operating system, or everything can be determined manually. The last option is suitable for experienced users who know what a data sector is and how a computer works in general. Moreover, the level of awareness should be very high.

Once disk space issues have been exhausted, you will be prompted to name this computer and also create an administrator. It will be necessary to remember what was indicated here, otherwise it will be almost impossible to operate the machine in the future without reinstalling or resetting. By the way, you will need a password and username not only to log into the system. After this, a wizard window for transferring settings from other operating systems will appear in front of you. If they are not present, the step will be skipped. Otherwise, the operating system will offer to transfer files, as well as settings that were in user accounts. And finally a window should appear in which the user's choice will be displayed. Check if everything is the way you want. If there are no complaints, then click on the “Install” button and the process will start. Depending on the configuration of the computer on which all these actions are carried out, the speed of replacement of operating systems varies. When all the necessary actions have been completed, you will be asked to click on the “Enter” button.

Launching Linux

When you turn it on for the first time, you will be greeted by the bootloader. In this case, running Linux will depend on the presence of third-party operating systems. If there is only one, then Linux itself will boot. If this is not the case, then you will have three options:

If you select the first one, the operating system will load in ten seconds.
The second option is an analogue of Windows Safe Mode.
Testing RAM.

Also, depending on the number of installed operating systems, options for launching them will be added, and not just loading the Linux system. After activating Linux, you can start customizing its design, start using additional applications - in general, do everything to make the operating system as customized as possible for you. There are a huge variety, and you can choose what you like. Some problems can only arise when using games and calculation applications (AutoCAD and the like).

Linux Removal and Recovery

The same Ubuntu will be used as an example. It doesn’t matter why you asked the question “how to remove Linux” - you didn’t like the system or decided that it was difficult. The main thing is how to do it. Let's consider two options. In the first, let's say you have a fallback option in the form of Windows. In the second, we will assume that you have no other operating system:

Place the installation disc in the drive. Boot from it, changing the priority in the basic input/output system. Open the command line. This can be done through the installation disk menu. Then select the “System Repair” option. In English it looks like Repair your computer. Correcting the entry about system loading. To do this, enter the command bootrec /fixmbr. And at startup, you will no longer be presented with the operating system selection screen when you turn on the computer, and Windows will always load. All is ready. Now, for the changes to take effect, restart the machine. If you want to completely get rid of Ubuntu, then you need to do two more steps. First, open the disk management menu. In the window that opens, you will need to right-click on the partition with the operating system and select the command to delete it. That's it, she's gone. Now right-click on the Windows partition and select the “Extend partition” command. Free space must be added to it. But let us remind you that this can only be done if there is a spare operating system.
Now imagine that you only have one Ubuntu. Then you will need a disk with the desired operating system (Windows will be taken as an example). Insert it into the optical drive. Then you will need to delete the partition that contains Linux. After that, continue with the installation. If this is not done, you will not be able to use the computer. And then you will have to create an operating system somewhere on a flash drive and carry out the necessary actions from it.

"Linux": so same and different

Let's talk about what analogues of Linux exist and give them a brief description. Only the most popular distributions will be considered:

Ubuntu. Focused on ease of learning and use.
OpenSUSE. Convenient distribution during setup and maintenance.
Fedora. One of the most popular options that has gained love due to its versatility.
Debian. This distribution served as the basis for many others. A large community of developers is working on its creation. Has a strict approach to using proprietary software.
Slackware. One of the oldest distributions. Has a conservative approach regarding development and use.
Gentoo. Very flexible distribution. Compiled from source codes. The end result can be characterized by high productivity and flexibility in task execution. Aimed at experienced users and computer technology experts.
Archlinux. A distribution that focuses on using the latest versions of software. Constantly updated. Suitable for those who want to have all the advantages and modifications, but do not want to waste their time.

In addition to all these listed options, there are many other distributions. They can be based on those indicated above or created from scratch. In the second option, they are usually created to perform a limited range of tasks. Each distribution has its own concept, set of packages, advantages and disadvantages. None of them can claim to satisfy all users. Therefore, along with the leaders, other implementations created by associations of programmers and companies successfully exist. So, there are many developments that can function from a CD, and you don’t have to install the system on the computer itself. If there are no specific goals, then you can use any distribution. If you want to assemble the necessary components yourself, I recommend paying attention to Gentoo, CRUX or LFS.

What do those who use Linux tell us?

In general, you can research the reviews yourself. But the article contains a certain “compilation” of them for those who do not have the desire or time to search and read various texts. Reviews about Linux are mostly positive. A positive feature is the small amount of RAM that must be allocated for the operation of the operating system itself. She has also earned respect among those people who need to focus on work, but are constantly distracted by games. This is not least due to the fact that relatively few entertainment programs have been released for Linux. Of course, you can use the services of operating system emulators, but this always requires a lot of time and resources. Therefore, this is a good option for lazy people. Linux is very popular among representatives of the information technology sector. This is not least due to the availability of various various tools. Programmers and technical specialists speak positively about this system due to its versatility and ease of carrying out the necessary activities. The negative features usually cited are the need to have significant knowledge of computers, the ability to work scientifically, and the visual difference from Windows. These are the opinions you can find about Linux. The operating system does differ significantly from the usual interface of most personal computers, but there is an opinion that this is more of an advantage than a disadvantage.

Conclusion

This is where the description of Linux comes to an end. The review presented many different aspects. You have learned and studied programs for Linux: what are the features of their work, how to install and run the operating system itself. Various commands have also been provided with which a basic range of user operations can be performed. We can only hope that the information about Linux - what it is and what it is used for - will be useful to you in practice.

Newcomers to the world of Linux are often confused by the variety of Linux distributions. Often it is difficult for them to understand what it is and they get lost in their huge number. But in fact, here everything can be grouped and presented in the form of a holistic picture to make everything easier to understand and navigate.

We have already talked about this in a separate article. In fact, it is the Linux kernel and a set of various software; we mean the same thing by the Linux operating system. Some Linux operating systems use the Linux kernel unchanged, while others modify it to gain greater security or implement necessary features. The advantages of a particular Linux operating system depend on the set of software that it uses. In this article we will look at the main types of Linux operating systems that currently exist.

All the systems on this list are in random order, so just because a system is in last place doesn't mean it's not worthy of attention.

1. Debian and other Deb systems

This group includes distributions based on Debian and others that use the Deb package management system. This package system was developed for Debian and is now quite often used in popular distributions, such as Debian itself, Ubuntu, LinuxMint, AstraLinux, Elementary and many others. These distributions use the original Linux kernel with a few patches that only fix bugs.

2. Red Hat and other Rpm systems

While the community was developing the Deb package management system, Red Hat created its own package manager, Rpm. Then all traditional Linux distributions were divided into two camps - those using deb and rpm. Now both package management systems are good and it cannot be said that one is worse than the other. You can read the detailed article in the link. Nowadays, the RPM package management system is used by such distributions as CentOS, Fedora, Red Hat, OpenSUSE and other less popular ones.

3. Arch Linux and those based on it

After some time, several more distributions appeared that did not use Deb or Rpm. One such distribution is ArchLinux. It uses its own package manager pacman, which allows you to do everything the same as deb, but in addition a simple rolling release system is implemented. Thanks to her, the distribution always has the latest software. Arch quickly gained popularity and several distributions were based on it - Manjaro, Antergos, Cinnarch and many others.

4.Gentoo

Many users wanted to be able to compile their system themselves in order to choose what software to install, as well as get optimization for their hardware. Therefore, a Gentoo distribution was created based on the Linux kernel, which uses the emerge package manager. Here you also get rolling releases, as well as the ability to compile your operating system on your computer with relative ease. The emerge package manager already contains ready-made build scripts, so you don’t have to add anything yourself.

5. Linux From Scratch

It's not really a distribution, LFS is a set of tools that allow you to build your own distribution based on the Linux kernel. You just take the kernel, take the sources of the necessary programs, all the programs from the initialization system and the command shell to the desktop environment, collect it all, configure it and get your distribution.

6. ChromeOS

Even later, Google released its operating system for netbooks based on the Linux kernel. In fact, ChromeOS is based on Gentoo, but they are so different that it is impossible to combine them into one point. In this system, Google implemented such an idea as the Linux cloud operating system. Your workspace is your browser. Here you have to do everything in the browser - edit documents, work with videos, and even the Linux terminal in the browser. Files are primarily stored in the cloud. But it's still Linux.

7.Android

Not everyone knows, but the most popular operating system for mobile phones also uses the Linux kernel. All that remains of Linux here is the kernel and a few other things; Google has filled everything else with its various frameworks, Java, and so on. The capabilities of Linux are limited by the same Bionic security system, which prohibits loading dynamic libraries, but in the terminal you can work with rebuilt Linux commands, and in a chroot environment you can run a full-fledged Linux distribution.

8. Slackware

A fairly old Linux distribution, which at one time was considered the most Unix. Previously, several distributions were based on it, such as Blacktrack, Slax, VectorLinux and others. But then it slowly lost its popularity. It uses its own package manager, which The capabilities are not up to par with deb and rpm. Dependency resolution is not supported, and the commands for removing and installing packages are in different utilities.

9. OpenWrt and those based on it

OpenWrt is a Linux 2017 operating system for routers and routers based on the Linux kernel. In addition to the Linux kernel itself, it comes with a stripped-down version of the C library, standard Linux utilities and BusyBox. The system takes up little space and is optimized specifically for routers. Most settings are done on the command line.

10. Tizen and other IoT

An operating system based on the Linux kernel, designed for various TVs, smart watches and other smart gadgets. The system is developed based on the Linux kernel by Samsung and is already used quite often. There are own applications and SDK for their development.

11. OS for supercomputers

As of 2017, Linux-based operating systems are most often used on supercomputers. Each company creates its own solution based on the kernel, which is optimized for its needs and needs. Of the 500 most powerful supercomputers, 498 run Linux and two more run UNIX, similar to IBM's AIX system.

In January of this year, the FAS admitted that Microsoft dominates the market of operating systems (OS) for personal computers (PCs) in Russia. According to 2015 data operated by the FAS, 95.6% of desktop PCs and laptops ran Windows. Apple had 2.5% of the market, but its Mac OS is not easy to install anywhere other than Mac computers. Microsoft's real competitors, the most serious of which was Linux, had only 1.9% of the market.

It would seem that the project to create a free OS has failed. In fact, he is rapidly conquering the world. “Many people don’t even know they’re using Linux,” said Finnish creator Linus Torvalds in an interview with Linux magazine. Pick up a smartphone - if it's Android, it's built on the Linux kernel. Go to the sites of giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook or some small unknown companies - they use Linux. Linux runs the International Space Station, powers most supercomputers, and was adopted by the New York Stock Exchange in 2007. Tens of thousands of programmers around the world work for free to continually improve the free system.

Employee Microsoft once told Torvalds that his portrait was being used in their office as a dartboard. Steve Ballmer publicly attacked Linux while CEO of Microsoft. It is unlikely that he was indifferent to her. After resigning, he admitted in a conversation with Fortune: Linux poses an increasing threat to Windows and is already “looming in the rearview mirror.” Ballmer's successor, Satya Nadella, took a different path: he launched the Microsoft Loves Linux initiative to adapt software to each other.

But Apple, on the contrary, at the end of last year banned the installation of Linux and other operating systems, except Mac OS and Windows 10, on its new computers. And before that, Steve Jobs invited Torvalds to become one of the developers of Mac OS and introduce into the process the same unusual development principles as Linux. But the Finnish programmer refused. “I think [Jobs] was very surprised that his argument about Apple’s market share didn’t work,” Torvalds recalled.

He has his own views on what open source software is and what his, Torvalds’, role is in the computer world. He created software that was free and from which he did not expect to earn a cent (although he ended up making millions). But even when money was tight in the late 1990s, Torvalds turned down the $10 million he would have received for joining the board of directors of one of the newborn Linux companies.

In January of this year, Torvalds launched development of the 5th version of the Linux kernel. “Changing a number does not mean anything special. If you need an official reason, I ran out of fingers and toes, so “4.21” turned into “5,” the online publication InternetUA quotes him.

Fascinated by the calculator

Linus Torvalds was born on December 28, 1969 in Helsinki and should have become a journalist - like almost all of his relatives. My father was a radio journalist, my mother was an editor at a news agency, my uncle worked for Finnish television, my grandfather was the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, and my sister, an employee of a news agency, simultaneously opened her own translation agency, specializing in the translation of news reports.

Family legend says that Linus's great-grandfather, journalist and writer Ernst von Wendt, fought for the Whites in 1917 and was captured by the Reds. Father Nils, on the contrary, was an ideological communist. Some children were even forbidden to play with Linus, and he himself was teased at school because of his father's radicalism. When the parents divorced, the children did not notice it too much: their father lived in Moscow for a long time.

A rare exception to the family profession was maternal grandfather Leo Waldemar Törnqvist, professor of statistics at the University of Helsinki. My grandson really enjoyed watching him work on the calculator. Unlike modern ones, those calculators needed time to calculate, and they blinked lights. The sight fascinated young Linus. In 1981, my grandfather bought his first computer, a Commodore VIC-20, instead of a calculator.

The rarest surname

In the biography “Just for Fun. The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary" (M.: Eksmo-press, 2002) Linus Torvalds, who belongs to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, talks about the origin of his surname: “My grandfather on my father’s side had the surname Torvalds<...>made it himself, using his middle name as a material at hand. At birth he was named Ole Thorwald Alice Saxberg. He was born without a father (Saxberg was his mother's maiden name) and then received the surname Karanko from the man my great-grandmother married. Farfar (as the Finns call their paternal grandfather. - Vedomosti) did not like his stepfather so much that he changed his surname: he added the letter “s” to the name Torvald to give the surname a more respectable sound, as it seemed to him. The name Torvald means "Thor's domain." It would be better if he created the surname from scratch, and did not engage in alterations: adding “s” deprives the word of its original meaning and confuses both Swedes and Finns, who cannot understand how to pronounce this surname. They want to write it not Torvalds, but Thorwalds. There are only 21 Torvalds in the world, and we are all related. We all face this family problem.”

Torvalds recalls that he was not an outcast at school and was quite dexterous - he was willingly taken to the Finnish version of dodgeball team. But at the same time he was a typical nerd: “I looked like a beaver, wore glasses, dressed tastelessly, my hair looked bad most of the time, and terrible the rest of the time.” It's no surprise that he became interested in computers. This hobby did not go away as he grew older. Because of the Finnish weather, there is nothing to do in the country except program, have sex or drink, Torvalds joked. He didn’t do well with the second one - hackers had not yet become fashionable in those years, and he didn’t particularly like drinking. All that's left is to write codes.

Investing in a computer

When Grandfather passed away, his computer passed on to Linus by default. Then he bought a Sinclair QL. The family did not show off: Torvalds recalls how his mother periodically pawned the only thing of value - a share of the Helsinki Telephone Company (issued to each telephone owner) worth about $500. Having become famous, he will make the only exception for this company and join its board of directors.

In 1990, Torvalds entered the University of Helsinki. He bought a computer with an Intel 386 processor, for which he had to take out a loan for several years. It was worth it: it was a powerful car for its time.

The university used the Unix operating system. Torvalds' computer runs the free Minix OS. Torvalds didn’t like how she connected from home via a modem to the university network, nor how she worked with the hardware of his computer. For example, Minix was designed for 16-bit processors, while the Intel 386 was 32-bit.

Torvalds wrote several programs to solve these problems. But they required other programs: for example, his solution for working with the institute’s network could not write files to disk. In the end, so many additional functions were created that it dawned on Torvalds: he had a Minix replacement in his hands in less than five minutes. But he still worked with Minix until he accidentally ruined it: he wrote a command that damaged the hard drive in the place where the OS was recorded. Then Torvalds began to use his Linux as the main OS.

Free Software Ideologists

It cannot be said that Torvalds created the operating system from scratch. He created the core of the system, that is, what connects programs to the computer hardware and allows them to work. This is a base on which you can attach many different add-ons. There is no single Linux operating system like Windows 10 - there are many operating systems based on the Linux kernel, some of which use the word Linux in their name.

Torvalds himself, in order to create a full-fledged OS on his kernel, used a set of other people's programs under the auspices of the General Public License (GPL), developed by Richard Stallman. Torvalds reverently calls him “the god of free software.”

Stallman began working on a free alternative to Unix in 1984. "Free" was the key word. His goal was to ensure that no one could appropriate the source codes and demand payment for them. Stallman created the ideological and legal basis for such software, the Free Software Manifesto, and, together with lawyers, wrote the General Public License (GPL). It states that if a programmer used code licensed under the GPL, then he must provide everyone with the source code of the resulting product, the right to modify and distribute it. The next programmer who used GPL-licensed software for his programs, etc., will have to do the same.

Torvalds, using Stallman's work, also licensed his kernel under the GPL. Therefore, in 2001, the general director Microsoft Ballmer cursed: “Linux is a cancer that devours all intellectual property it touches. According to the license rules, if you use any components of open source software, you must open source all the software you own” (quoted by Cnet).

Why Linux is popular

Initially, Torvalds was reluctant to distribute his work. But he boasted of his successes on an Internet forum and, so as not to be considered a trash talker, posted the code.

His creation captivated other programmers, who began installing it on their computers and suggesting improvements. It was indeed very far from perfection. Once Torvalds received a letter, the author of which praised Linux for a long time, and at the end he reported that the disk drive driver contained a bug that had just destroyed his hard drive.

The system became more and more popular. By that time, Torvalds had long been working on Linux not alone. More and more people understood the code and offered their improvements, and they did it absolutely free. There is a system that allows volunteers to work on a new version of Linux with other developers, see the changes others make, and revert to previous versions of files if errors occur. Linux once had 10,000 lines of code. Now the count is in the tens of millions. In 2017, about 80,000 improvements to Linux were proposed, 90% of them by paid programmers, with 30% of them working for Intel, The New Yorker wrote.

Torvalds knows Linux so well that he often accepts or rejects proposed changes on sight: “It’s like looking at a book and not seeing individual letters or words, but grasping the entire sentence” (quoted by Bloomberg). But if the changes are serious, then he needs 10–25 minutes to test them. Although Torvalds has many assistants to sift through proposals, he sometimes has to sift through 30 changes a day.

Thanks to this system, Linux has attracted the attention of major players. The first among large companies to install software based on the Linux kernel on their equipment was Sun Microsystems, then IBM, Informix, Oracle... Small companies also became interested. The rise of online commerce in the 1990s. created a need for server software. Previously, you had to spend thousands of dollars on it, now you could install it for pennies by adapting Linux. Anyone could open their own business online.

Torvalds believes that the basis for Linux's success is that it has no niche. Once upon a time, Unix relied on military supercomputers, banks, and financial organizations, he says in his autobiography “Just for Fun. The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary." This software cost a lot of money. Then she came Microsoft with her relatively inexpensive prices and began to work everywhere. “But imagine a liquid organism that floods any discovered space. If one of the niches is lost, it doesn’t matter. The body fills the whole world, flowing into every hole. The same thing is happening now with Linux. She appears wherever there is interest in her<...>It can be found on supercomputers in all sorts of cool places like the National Laboratory. Fermi and NASA. But it flowed there from the server space. And I, in turn, got into it from the world of desktop computers - this is where I started. At the same time, Linux also powers embedded devices, from anti-lock brakes to watches. See how she fills the world."

Of course, another reason for its popularity is the image of Robin Hood. On the one hand - a monster corporation Microsoft, rumors about spying on users, etc., and on the other hand, free software and a humble Finn.

How Torvalds became a millionaire

“I had a hard time scraping together the monthly payments for my computer that were expected to last three years,” Torvalds recalled in his biography. But he thought it was wrong to take money for Linux. The reason for this was Finland with its attitude towards greed, and a stubborn communist father, and an unwillingness to force those who helped him make the program better to pay, Torvalds reasoned.

On the Internet there are so-called shareware (from English shareware) - free software that asks: “If you like me, send money to the author.” There was no such request in Linux, but many wrote to Torvalds that they would be happy to support him financially. At that time, a letter from the “maximum repost” series was circulating on the Internet: supposedly the boy Craig was dying of cancer, but he could be cheered up by sending a postcard. Torvalds jokingly asked to write him a couple of lines instead of currency. When the mailbox began to burst with postcards from all over the world, the family suspected that Linus was doing something important. He himself did not talk much about Linux, despite all the reproaches that his modem constantly occupied the telephone line.

Torvalds lived and dined with his mother. He had about $5,000 in student loans, about $50 a month in computer loans, and some money needed for beer. The loan problem resolved itself: a friend advertised a subscription on the Internet to pay for Torvalds’ computer, and he, as an exception, accepted the money. And he paid the rest from his salary. There is a Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, to which the Torvaldses belong. In 1992, a computer science course required an assistant who spoke Swedish and was computer literate. There were only two of these in the faculty.

Three years later, Torvalds became a full-time researcher at the university: he received money for research, which largely boiled down to improving Linux.

Thanks to teaching, Torvalds got married. Kindergarten teacher and six-time Finnish karate champion Tove signed up for his special course “Introduction to Computer Science.” The first task was to send an email to the teacher - it was not as easy as it is now. In the letter, Tove invited him on a date. At first, they never separated at all, and Torvalds even gave up programming.

In 1997, Torvalds and his family moved to the United States to work for Transmeta, a company developing low-power processors. One of the co-owners of this company is Paul Allen, who, together with Bill Gates, founded Microsoft. Torvalds' task was to maintain the project's Linux infrastructure.

Torvalds never had more than $5,000 in his bank account until the beginning of this century, when he became an overnight millionaire. Just because Linux is free doesn't mean you can't make money on it. Even when the project was just in its infancy, the kernel could be downloaded for free from the Internet - or you could buy a recording of it on a floppy disk or CD from enterprising guys. You can make money from Linux installation services; you can customize Linux to the needs of a specific company for a fee. The latter is handled by Red Hat, which went public on August 11, 1999. And before that, as a sign of gratitude, she gave Torvalds an option for a stake.

On the first day of trading, quotes doubled. But he had the right to sell the papers no earlier than after 180 days. Fortunately, they were growing all this time (in 2009, Red Hat will enter the S&P 500), and the value of Torvalds’ stake reached $5 million.

Soon another company, VA Linux, entered the stock exchange and gave Torvalds an option in the same way. On a wave of optimism, the shares immediately rose 10 times to $300. But this turned out to be too much, and the dot-com bubble was beginning to deflate. From $300, the shares began to fall, and at the minimum a year later they were priced at $6.6. Torvalds remembers how terrible it was to watch your stake get cheaper for 180 days, and you couldn’t sell it.

With the money raised from the shares, the family (the Linux author now has three daughters) bought a house in America, and Torvalds took to keeping in the garage, in addition to the family Pontiac, a convertible, usually yellow.

In 2012, Torvalds won the world's largest technology prize, the Millennium Technology Prize. He shared the €1.2 million prize with another winner that year, Japanese stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka.

But Torvalds' main source of income, after he left Transmeta in 2003, was the Linux Foundation (in those years it was called Open Source Development Labs). His job is to evaluate other people's proposals for improving Linux: “I haven't written code myself for years. Everything I write is just a correction of other people's mistakes, I make changes in one or two lines, my contribution is to combine different pieces of code” (quoted from the online publication The Register). The fund is replenished with the help of donations, including from companies using Linux. According to The New Yorker, in 2017 its budget was $50 million, and Torvalds received $1.6 million from the foundation in 2016.

Control of a rude person

“Managing a project with hundreds of thousands of developers, I act exactly the same as in my student days: I don’t assign anything to anyone, I just wait for someone to volunteer,” Torvalds said in his biography. “I approve or reject their work, but for the most part I let things take their course.” If two people are going in similar directions, then I accept the work of both to see whose gets used. Sometimes both are used, but they begin to develop in different directions. One day there was a strong competition between two people: each of them insisted that his patches be used, which conflicted with those of his opponent. I stopped accepting patches from both until one of the developers lost interest. This is what King Solomon would have done if he had run a kindergarten.”

This approach has proven to be effective on Linux scale. But when Torvalds was assigned to head a department of 15 employees at Transmeta, he showed his complete unsuitability. Three months later, he was quietly demoted back to programmers.

But not everyone likes him as the main coordinator of Linux, since his style of communication with colleagues for many years remained “student”: the programmer did not hold back in his expressions.

In 2013, one of the developers even wrote a letter to Torvalds asking him not to insult or intimidate his colleagues. “If you want me to ‘act professionally,’ I can tell you that I’m not interested,” Torvalds replied. “I’m sitting at home in my office, dressed in a robe. I'm not going to start wearing a tie, and I'm also not going to engage in false politeness, deceit, office politics and pranking, passive aggressiveness and other buzzwords. Because THIS is what “acting professionally” amounts to: people resort to all kinds of unpleasant things because they are forced to follow ordinary impulses in an unnatural way” (quoted in The New Yorker).

In 2015, Torvalds's closest associate, programmer Greg Croah-Hartman, wrote the Conflict Resolution Code, in part to discourage others from making harsh remarks. Torvalds approved the innovation, but did not hold back. At the end of that year, Sarah Sharp and Matthew Gareth quit the Linux kernel team due to mistreatment. “I'm actually an unpleasant person. Some people think I'm so cute and some are shocked to see otherwise. I'm not a nice person and I don't care about you. I care about the technology and the core,” responded Torvalds (quoted by The Register).

Last October, kernel developers were supposed to gather at the Linux Maintainer Summit conference. Torvalds visited her for 20 years in a row. But this time I mixed up the date and planned a vacation with my family. This was discovered ahead of time, but he refused to change plans for the sake of the summit and left for Scotland. Then its participants decided to gather not in Vancouver, but in Edinburgh, closer to Torvalds, so that he could still join them for a while. The story was heatedly discussed in programming circles, and journalists from The New Yorker secured a meeting with Torvalds and asked him questions about the incident and his relationship with his colleagues. In September 2018 - before the article was published - Torvalds apologized for his behavior, promised to think about how to change it, and announced that he would temporarily step aside from coordinating Linux.

That same month, a new code of conduct for Linux developers was announced, and in October Torvalds returned to the team (he also attended the forum).

Now the community lives by new rules. In the past, spontaneity and directness in expressing opinions were considered natural and beneficial in open software development. Now criticism must be presented constructively, and after hearing it, it must be carefully considered. Derogatory comments, personal attacks, and sexually suggestive language are prohibited. Torvalds is trying to hold back for now.

A user who just wants to get acquainted with operating systems based on the Linux kernel can easily get lost in the assortment of various distribution kits. Their abundance is associated with the open source code of the kernel, so developers around the world are diligently adding to the ranks of already known operating systems. This article will discuss the most popular of them.

In fact, the variety of distributions is only beneficial. If you understand the distinctive features of certain operating systems, you will be able to choose the system that is perfect for your computer. Weak PCs receive a particular advantage. By installing a distribution kit for weak hardware, you will be able to use a full-fledged OS that will not load your computer and at the same time provide all the necessary software.

To try out one of the distributions presented below, just download the ISO image from the official website, burn it to a USB drive and start the computer from the flash drive.

If the manipulation of writing an ISO image of the operating system to a drive seems complicated to you, then you can read the guide on installing Linux on the VirtualBox virtual machine on our website.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is rightfully considered the most popular distribution based on the Linux kernel in the CIS. It was developed on the basis of another distribution - Debian, but in appearance there is no similarity between them. By the way, users often have disputes about which distribution is better: Debian or Ubuntu, but everyone agrees on one thing - Ubuntu is great for beginners.

Developers systematically release updates that improve or correct its shortcomings. It is distributed free of charge online, including both security updates and enterprise versions.

The advantages include:

simple and easy installer;
a large number of thematic forums and articles on configuration;
Unity user interface, which differs from the usual Windows, but is intuitive;
a large amount of pre-installed applications (Thunderbird, Firefox, games, Flash plugin and many other software);
has a large amount of software both in internal and external repositories.

Linux Mint

Although Linux Mint is a separate distribution, it is based on Ubuntu. This is the second most popular product and is also great for beginners. Has more pre-installed software than the previous OS. Linux Mint is almost identical to Ubuntu in terms of internal system aspects that are hidden from the user's eyes. The graphical interface is more similar to Windows, which undoubtedly tempts users to choose this operating system.

The advantages of Linux Mint are the following:

It is possible to select the graphical shell of the system when loading;
during installation, the user receives not only software with free source code, but also proprietary programs that can ensure optimal operation of video-audio files and Flash elements;
developers improve the system by periodically releasing updates and fixing bugs.

CentOS

As the CentOS developers themselves say, their main goal is to make a free and, importantly, stable OS for various organizations and enterprises. Therefore, by installing this distribution, you will receive a system that is stable and protected in all respects. However, the user should prepare and study the CentOS documentation, since it differs quite significantly from other distributions. From the main thing: the syntax of most commands is different, as are the commands themselves.

The advantages of CentOS are the following:

has many functions that ensure system security;
includes only stable versions of applications, which reduces the risk of critical errors and other types of failures;
Enterprise-level security updates are released to the OS.

openSUSE

openSUSE is a good option for a netbook or low-power computer. This operating system has an official wiki website, a user portal, a service for developers, projects for designers, and IRC channels in several languages. Among other things, the openSUSE team sends emails to users when updates or other important events happen.

The advantages of this distribution are as follows:

has a large number of software delivered through . True, there is somewhat less of it than in Ubuntu;
has a KDE graphical shell, which is in many ways similar to Windows;
has flexible settings performed using the YaST program. With its help, you can change almost all parameters, from wallpaper to settings of internal system components.

Pinguy OS

Pinguy OS was developed with the goal of making a system that was simple and beautiful. It is intended for the average user who decides to switch from Windows, which is why you can find many familiar functions in it.

The operating system is based on the Ubuntu distribution. There are both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Pinguy OS has a large set of programs with which you can perform almost any action on your PC. For example, turn the standard Gnome top bar into a dynamic one, like in Mac OS.

Zorin OS

Zorin OS is another system whose target audience is beginners who want to switch from Windows to Linux. This OS is also based on Ubuntu, but its interface has much in common with Windows.

However, the distinguishing feature of Zorin OS is the package of pre-installed applications. As a result, you will immediately be able to run most Windows games and programs thanks to the Wine program. You will also be pleased with the pre-installed Google Chrome, which is the default browser in this OS. And for lovers of graphic editors, there is GIMP (analogous to Photoshop). The user can download additional applications independently using Zorin Web Browser Manager - a kind of analogue of Play Market on Android.

Manjaro Linux

Manjaro Linux is based on ArchLinux. The system is very easy to install and allows the user to start working immediately after installing the system. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS versions are supported. The repositories are constantly synchronized with ArchLinux, so users are among the first to receive new versions of the software. Immediately after installation, the distribution has all the necessary tools for interacting with multimedia content and third-party equipment. Manjaro Linux supports several kernels, including rc.

Solus

Solus is not the best option for weak computers. At least because this distribution has only one version - 64-bit. However, in return, the user will receive a beautiful graphical shell, with flexible settings, many tools for work and reliability in use.

It is also worth noting that Solus uses an excellent eopkg manager for working with packages, which offers standard tools for installing/uninstalling packages and searching for them.

Elementary OS

The Elementary OS distribution is based on Ubuntu and is a great starting point for beginners. An interesting design that is very similar to OS X, a large amount of software - this and much more will be acquired by the user who installs this distribution. A distinctive feature of this OS is that most of the applications that come with it are developed specifically for this project. Because of this, they are ideally comparable to the overall structure of the system, which is why the OS runs much faster than Ubuntu. In addition, thanks to this, all the elements are perfectly combined in appearance.

Conclusion

It is difficult to objectively say which of the presented distributions is better and which is somewhat worse, just as it is impossible to force someone to install Ubuntu or Mint on their computer. Everything is individual, so the decision about which distribution to start using is up to you.

Now, using the latest version of Ubuntu, Fedora or OpenSUSE, we can enjoy a beautiful and modern desktop environment, ease of use of graphical programs, and the fact that most computer hardware is supported by the system without additional settings. But have you ever wondered how our favorite operating system got to all this?

Do we consider and appreciate the amount of time and effort put in by so many developers to get to this near-perfect state of the system? Most likely no. Let's take a look at the history of this wonderful OS and its journey over the past few decades. When she was born? How did it evolve? What distributions came out during development, and what was the turning point that turned a one-man project into the ubiquitous operating system we have today? And what were the distributions sent by the community to the archive?

So, let's mentally go back in time, almost 30 years ago, and remember where the history of Linux systems began.

1991 - beginning

In the beginning there was Unix, created by programmers Ken Thompson and Denis Ritchie in 1969. Then, throughout the eighties, many Unix-based projects were created inspired by this philosophy. These included the GNU Project by Richard Stallman, BSD (Berkley Software Distribution), Professor Andrew Tanenbaum's book Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, and MINIX (a mini version of Unix), which appeared around the same time as the book.

But it was only in 1991 that the history of Linux began. A young Finnish student named Linus Torvalds combined everything he knew about existing systems into a new kernel that could take over the world. There are many legends about why Linus decided to work on his system. One of them says that he was working in MINIX and transferred data to the hard drive instead of the modem, which destroyed all the Minix partitions. After that, he became disillusioned with this OS and decided to create his own.

Another version is that he wrote a kernel to improve the functionality of the new Intel 386 machine he was using. And since it was forbidden to improve Minix, he had to develop his own operating system.

Whatever the real reason, he created a free terminal emulator that was based on Minix, which was in turn based on Unix, and this became the basis for work on the operating system kernel. In 1991, on August 25, Linus published his famous message in the Minix newsletter.

After that, the first version of Linux, which was then called Freax, very quickly spread across FTP servers around the world, and the number of users began to grow rapidly. Version 0.01 was very different from what is available today. You can download the 71 kilobyte kernel yourself and try installing it from here.

Let's move on down the road of history. Needless to say, Linux evolved into a full-fledged OS, with the Manchester Computing Center creating one of the first distributions to use a combined boot and root partition. The distribution was called MCC Interim Linux.

1992 - 1994 - development of desktop systems

Not much time passed, and between 1992 and 1994 we saw the emergence and development of the most famous and influential Linux distributions: Slackware, Red Hat and Debian. The kernel version increased to 0.95, and support for the X Window System appeared, allowing you to run graphical applications.

Slackware was one of the first distributions to use the new Linux kernel. It was then called SLS (Softlanding Linux System) and was founded by Peter McDonald in 1992. SLS was quite ahead of its time, as it was the first Linux distribution to contain not only the Linux 0.99 kernel, but also the TCP/IP stack and the X system Window. But this distribution had many problems and was soon replaced by Patrick Volkerding's Slackware. It is now the oldest Linux distribution.

But SLS didn't just give birth to Slackware. Due to the problematic SLS interface, another user decided to make his own system and thereby launched another branch of Linux distributions. In 1993, Ian Murdoch released the Debian Linux distribution, which he said was named after his then-girlfriend Debra Lynn and himself.

As Slackware evolved, companies emerged that provided technical support for such software. One of them appeared in 1994 and was called Software und System-Entwicklung, now better known as S.U.S.E Linux.

Another distribution that was released on November 3, 1994 is called Red Hat Commercial Linux. The distribution was created by Mark Ewing and is named after the red hat that the author wore at university.

In 1994, on March 14, Linux version 1.0.0 was released, which consisted of 176,250 lines of code. This is how the history of the development of Linux systems began.

1995 - 1999 - the emergence of Gnome and KDE

During this period, the Linux operating system has made a big leap in development, since in the next five years the main Linux distributions that are known and widely used today will appear, and less noticeable distributions will also appear. All this happens during the release of the game "Attack of the Penguins" and the boom of dot.com.

Jurix Linux was an interesting distribution and popular for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was the first distribution with a scripted installer, allowing the administrator to simplify the installation process. It was one of the first distributions to support bootp and NFS, and was also the first to use the ext2 file system.

But this is not why Jurix became an important milestone in the history of Linux operating systems - it was the basis for the creation of SUSE Linux, which we still use today.

Distributions based on Red Hat Linux also developed actively during this time. Versions such as Caldera, Mandrake, TurboLinux, Yellow Dog and Red Flag appeared. Now the Linux kernel version has changed from 1.2 to 2.2.

Version 2.0 was released in 1996 and there were already 41 releases before it. It was this rapid development of the kernel and the addition of some very important features that cemented the position of the Linux operating system as the server OS and system of choice for IT professionals around the world.

For example, version 2.0 introduced support for the SMB protocol, improved memory management, and support for working on various types of processors. Version 2.2 received SMB improvements, PowerPC support and the ability to mount NTFS, but for now it is read-only.

There is a legend that once while on vacation in Australia, Linus Torvalds visited a zoo, where he was bitten by a ferocious penguin. After which he became infected with penguinitis and fell in love with penguins. Anyway, Linus liked penguins. Like he said, they're goofy and fun. As for the name of the Linux symbol - Tuxa, on the Internet it is deciphered as (T)orvalds (U)ni(X). Now you know everything.

Debian-based systems did not develop as actively as Red Hat. Developers preferred to work more on the usability and appearance of their distributions. Being more desktop oriented, such distributions often appeared on the covers of popular IT magazines of the time. We came across such names as Libranet, Storm, Finnix and Corel Linux.

Undoubtedly, the most important event during this part of the history of the Linux OS was the emergence of KDE and Gnome. KDE (Kool Desktop Environment) was introduced in 1996. Its founder was Matthias Ettrich, a student at the University of Tübingen. It offered not just a set of applications, but an entire desktop environment in which they could run. Users have the choice of using the X11 or KDE environment, written in the recently introduced Qt framework.

By 1998, KDE 1.0 was released and the first distribution to use it by default was Mandrake. By 2000, version 2.0 was released, which received many improvements, as well as the Konqueror, KOffice programs and the KIO library.

Miguel de Icaza and Federico Men announced the development of a new desktop environment, as well as applications for it, based on the GTK+ library. This new desktop environment was called Gnome. It is believed that the first operating system to use Gnome was Red Hat Linux. Gnome has quickly become a popular desktop environment due to its high performance and ease of use for average users. By May 2000, Gnome 1.2 Bongo was released.

2000 - 2005 - emergence of Live distributions

During this period, an important step took place in the history of the Linux operating system. Over these five years, its popularity has grown greatly, and many new computers running Linux have appeared. The kernel continued to receive improvements, new programs appeared, and the first live distribution appeared.

Knoppix, a friendly distribution based on Debian and developed by Klaus Knopper, was one of the most popular at the time. It was notable for many reasons, but the main one was the ability to run and try the system directly from a CD.

We now consider this feature standard. But in those days, Knoppix, released on September 30, 2000, could be run on any computer and get a full-fledged system with support for various hardware and networks. This was something new. Knoppix became the basis for many distributions, and some of them are known and used to this day.

In addition to ready-made distributions, a project has appeared that helps users build their own distribution. Linux From Scratch (LFS) was developed in conjunction with a book by Jared Beekmans, which showed how to build your own Linux distribution from source.

Linux is, first of all, freedom, and it needs to develop. But in order to support development, ensure its protection and maintain independence, it is necessary to form a company that will do all this. Therefore, in 2000, a foundation was created to sponsor the work of Linus and the growing community to create and improve Linux, and to protect and preserve the core values of the movement.

A key moment during this period was the release of Linux kernel version 2.4 on January 4th. This version added support for USB, PC cards, ISA Plug and Play, as well as Bluetooth, RAID and ext3. In fact, it was the longest supported kernel, ending at version 2.4.37.11 in 2011. The kernel has changed a lot and has become more versatile compared to 1.0.

Red Hat, which by that time had already entered the stock market and was receiving money for supporting the free Red Hat Linux OS, decided that it was time to take a more commercial approach to the matter. Therefore, the distribution was divided into two branches. Red Hat Enterprice Linux 2.1 with kernel 2.4.9 appeared. It was more stable, with longer support and for commercial users. And the second distribution - Fedora - is free and for the community.

Red Hat Enterprice Linux is still an open source product. The company hosts the source code on several FTP servers, from which several independent development groups download it and compile their distributions based on it: CentOS, Oracle Linux, CERN and Scientific Linux. They have all the stability benefits of a commercial distribution, but do not have access to the software and support from Red Hat.

In December 2002, an interesting distribution kit appeared - CRUX. His main goal was to keep things as simple as possible, a trend that was very popular at the time. CRUX was very lightweight and aimed more at the developer rather than the average user. While other distributions saw exponential growth and competition to become the best replacement for Windows, CRUX remained simple and minimalistic. And it is interesting to us because it became the basis for the now very popular ArchLinux.

On December 18, it was announced the release of a new version of the Linux kernel - 2.6. This version added support for PAE, new processors, improved support for 64-bit processors, increased the maximum file system size to 16 TB, added the EXT4 file system and more.

Even at that time, Linux distributions were quite good, but they were still very far from ideal for those who liked Microsoft products. Therefore, a new philosophy was needed that would make Linux closer to the average user. For example Ubuntu.

The goal of Ubuntu, a Debian-based distribution, was to create an easy-to-use Linux desktop that could be used by the average user with little Linux experience. With the release of Ubuntu 4.04 on October 20, 2004, this concept was realized.

2006 - 2012 - the rise and fall of Ubuntu

During this period, many distributions have become more stable and continue to improve. Many new distributions have also appeared. One of them, the first version of which was released in 2006, is very popular today. This is Linux Mint. It was based on Ubuntu and contained both free and proprietary software. This greatly simplified the installation of codecs, drivers and other components for beginners. The developers of the distribution tried to include new programs in it, and also listened to the opinions of their users, which won the support of the community.

Meanwhile, a new version of the KDE4 desktop environment was released, which was met with criticism from users due to its lack of stability. Even Linus himself said that this version of KDE breaks everything and provides only half the capabilities of the previous version. Nevertheless, users began to use KDE4 with the Plasma environment and a modern appearance, and by the release of version 4.2, which took place in 2009, they had already forgotten about their negative experience.

On September 23, the most popular operating system based on the Linux kernel was released at the moment, although 90% of users have no idea that they are using Linux. Of course it's Android. Version 1.0 was released for the HTC Dream and could do everything you'd expect from a modern smartphone, but it was very bad. Version 1.1 fixed most of the bugs, but it wasn't until version 1.5 that Android began to take over the smartphone world.

Throughout this time, Ubuntu has become stronger and stronger. It regularly took first place in the rankings of Linux distributions, won more and more fans and was quite easy to use. But then, one sunny day in April, Ubuntu 14.04 was released, it came with a new default environment - Unity. There has never been as much negativity towards Gnome 3 and KDE 4 as there has been towards Unity. We can say that almost everyone hated Unity back then. But Canonical did not abandon its idea immediately, and the shell became quite usable.

After many years of development in the 2.6 branch, the 3.0 kernel version was finally released. And no, there were no significant changes to it. It’s just that Linus and the community decided that the 2.6.* numbering had become too complicated and it was time to change the number.

The failure with KDE4 is not the only unfortunate story in the development of Linux environments. After it, one could say that developers should have learned from others' experiences and already know what their audience likes. But this clearly does not apply to the Gnome development team, which released Gnome 3 in April 2012. Now Gnome users were very unhappy with the interface changes and switched to KDE or used older versions of Gnome. But in subsequent versions, Gnome became much better, and the Linux Mint developers decided to preserve the old Gnome look with new features and created their own environment - Cinnamon.

2012-2018 - Linux and games

Nowadays, Linux has almost completely conquered the server market and has become even more attractive to home users. One of the factors that makes Linux attractive to ordinary people is gaming. In February 2013, Valve, the creator of a large game distribution platform, released a version of its Steam client for Linux. Back then, most games could only be played through a Windows emulator, and those games that were for Linux, as a rule, were of little interest to anyone.

A few years later, SteamOS was released, a Linux-based operating system for Valve's gaming consoles. There are currently over 3,000 games available for Linux on Steam. Valve has also recently begun working on integrating a Windows game emulator into Steam, which will make it even easier to launch them, given that the emulator recently added support for many libraries from DirectX 10 and 11.

New distributions continue to appear at the same speed as before. There are some interesting ones among them. For example Manjaro, based on Arch Linux. It appeared in November 2013, but despite its youth it already occupies a leading position in popularity in many tops. Its advantage is that it simplifies the installation and configuration of ArchLinux, but at the same time retains its flexibility and some advantages. In addition to Manjaro, many new interesting distributions have been released, for example Antergos, ElementaryOS, Deepin Linux and others, which are now popular among users.

As for the Linux kernel, the version was changed again in 2015 to 4.0. Again there were no major changes, a vote was held and the community decided that the kernel version should be changed. Among the significant changes during this period, it is worth noting the addition of UEFI support, improved work with new equipment, the addition of security systems, porting of subsystems necessary for Android, improved Btrfs stability and much more.

In 2013, the Ubuntu development company decided to try its hand at the mobile market and released a mobile version of Ubuntu - Ubuntu Touch. The advantages of the operating system should have been the ability to turn a smartphone into a full-fledged computer when connecting it to a screen via HDMI. A separate Unity 8 shell was developed for it, a Mir display server instead of X Window, and even several smartphones were released. But nothing came of the project; it was closed in 2017, after Smasung released its DEX. In addition, in version 17.10, Ubuntu developers decided to abandon the use of Unity and returned to Gnome, and instead of their Mir display server, they will now use the community-developed Wayland, which is also being developed to replace the outdated Xorg.

conclusions

Unfortunately, our excursion into Linux's past has come to an end. We saw old Linux distributions and found out where it all began. It is unknown what will happen in the future, but the Linux operating system is developing and is of interest to more and more people and companies. The story of the creation of Linux does not end here and, most likely, it has a great future.